House hack a 4plex vs building personal home

[Brennan Hale]

A little bit about me… I’m about to turn 20 living in Oklahoma working in the oilfield making great money for my age and I’m coming across a hard decision on which path I should take. I’m deciding between buying a 3 or 4 unit building and house hacking it or buying a few acres for dirt cheap off my father and building a little home on it. My family has a construction background and we have all the equipment and machinery that you would need to build a little house. Being that I’m in oil and gas and that my job isn’t always guaranteed I would like a sense of security that I have a home to go to that is paid for or almost paid off. The land is in a great growing part of a smaller town 30 minutes south of the city. I just need some advise on what I should do but I’m very interested in real estate investing! I have good reserves and a good income coming in at the moment but you never know in oil and gas. I just want to hear other people thoughts on what they think I should do. Thanks

[Justin Berst]

Buy the 4 plex.  You can always build the house in a year or 2 after you buy the 4 plex and live in it.  After 2 years of owning the rentals they will count as income and won't hurt your debt to income ratio.  Also, building right now on land that you can't sell, due to being next to your parents is not investing as much as it is providing for your own house. Your own house is great but if you can't sell it then it doesn't move you closer to financial freedom.  Just my opinion.